I was able to say goodbye to my grandpa the day before he died. He was not doing too well, he had a catheter and people around him with cold rags to keep his body cool. My grandma had just put up Halloween decorations, and he was joking about having his costume ready.
Our phone call went like this:
"Hi Grandpa! How are you?"
"I'm all spooky!"
"Yeah, you ready for Halloween? I love you grandpa!"
"I love you too... take care of your self. Goodbye"
The phone call ended. I am so amazed at his ability to keep good spirits about him, even when he was in a tremendous amount of pain. It is so amazing how thin the veil really is.
The weekend before my grandpa died, the nurses came in and requested the he accept full-time care from hospice nurses. He said he'd have to think about it. Accepting full time care meant that he would have to fire his son. He told them he would fire his son if they would send in a cute young nurse to care for him. That made us all laugh :)
My grandpa always had this big spider that they would hang on the wall in between their kitchen and family room. Each Halloween he would try his best to scare one of us with his falling spider. To get the spider to fall, you would have to clap loud enough to make the spider drop.
Grandma put the spider up for him. At one point, the nurse was sitting under the spider and grandpa was heard trying to get enough energy to clap loud enough to drop the spider and scare the nurse. There was another time when Joel was siting under the spider and my grandpa woke up for three seconds to clap and get Joel with the spider (everyone thought he was asleep). And the final spider story happened the day before he died. Grandpa was asleep in the family room. Someone dropped a fork in the kitchen and it was loud enough that it sent the spider off. Everyone jumped and said something like "Ahh!" Grandpa was heard laughing after the spider fell. I love his sense of humor and his ability to have fun... regardless of the circumstances.
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